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Gerrit Smith and the John Brown Raid article from The American Historical Review

[New York*-- l^j^JLuUn^ C^M^tiyj From The -American Historical Review Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1. (Oct., 1932) pp. 32-60.
• Gerrit Smith and the John Brown Raid
[p.32]. For a period of more than forty years prior to his death in 1874, Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, New York, was one of the most conspicuous and best known men in the United States, In every sense of the word a national figure. Inheriting abundant means, as fortunes Went in his day, he devoted his talents, financial and Intellectual, to the causes of philanthropy and reform. His generosity was gratefully acknowledged by colleges as far apart as middlebury and Oberlin, and by several others in between; as a dispenser of private charity he made his name a house¬ hold word; as an Abolitionist he was just as prominent as his good friend William Lloyd Harrison; he spoke oracularly and wrote often and at length on almost every subject of popular interest, particularly on peace, slavery, temper¬ ance, religion, and politics. If in discussing these matters he revealed a tendency toward dogmatism and an un¬ critical acceptance of certain premises, he at least pos¬ sessed the flawless logic of the true dialectician. He was withal a warm-hearted, genial gentleman of high moral character, admired by his acquaintances, loved by his

[New York*-- l^j^JLuUn^ C^M^tiyj From The -American Historical Review Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1. (Oct., 1932) pp. 32-60.
• Gerrit Smith and the John Brown Raid
[p.32]. For a period of more than forty years prior to his death in 1874, Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, New York, was one of the most conspicuous and best known men in the United States, In every sense of the word a national figure. Inheriting abundant means, as fortunes Went in his day, he devoted his talents, financial and Intellectual, to the causes of philanthropy and reform. His generosity was gratefully acknowledged by colleges as far apart as middlebury and Oberlin, and by several others in between; as a dispenser of private charity he made his name a house¬ hold word; as an Abolitionist he was just as prominent as his good friend William Lloyd Harrison; he spoke oracularly and wrote often and at length on almost every subject of popular interest, particularly on peace, slavery, temper¬ ance, religion, and politics. If in discussing these matters he revealed a tendency toward dogmatism and an un¬ critical acceptance of certain premises, he at least pos¬ sessed the flawless logic of the true dialectician. He was withal a warm-hearted, genial gentleman of high moral character, admired by his acquaintances, loved by his